Dipeptide interactions with Zn(II)–cyclen artificial model for molecular recognition

The Zn(II)-cyclen-dipeptide ternary systems (where cyclen is abbreviated as L and dipeptide is glycylglycine (HL(1)) or glycyl-(S)-alanine (HL(2))) were investigated by potentiometry applying both "out-of-cell" and direct titrations and by (1) H NMR spectroscopy. Especially, the (1)H NMR study was found to be very efficient to estimate speciation in the systems. The results obtained under full equilibria indicated two main species, [Zn(L)(HL(1,2))](2+) and [Zn(L)(L(1,2))](+), in both the systems. In the [Zn(L)(HL(1,2))](2+) complex, presence of carbonyl-carboxylate chelate was confirmed, and in the [Zn(L)(L(1,2))](+) species, the peptide coordination is re-organized to carbonyl-amine chelate or only terminal amino group is coordinated. Equilibrium constants describing [Zn(L)](2+)-dipeptide interaction are relatively low, log K = 3.4 for Gly-Gly and 4.1 for Gly-(S)-Ala, respectively. Nevertheless, the values are slightly higher than stability constants for interaction of Zn(II) with the dipeptides (i.e. [Zn(L(1,2))](+) species) where a chelate formation is expected. It indicates that interaction between Zn(II) ion in [Zn(L)](2+) and the dipeptides should be supported by some additional interactions. Potentiometry carried out under non-equilibrum condition showed different species where these additional stabilizing forces play more important role.